Trailer Coming Soon
"We are Wiyot"
is in pre-production budgeting and team building. This is an independent film and will have a funding campaign begin in late fall of 2015. Links and press will be notified and updated.
thank you.
"We are Wiyot"
is in pre-production budgeting and team building. This is an independent film and will have a funding campaign begin in late fall of 2015. Links and press will be notified and updated.
thank you.
The collective purpose of this film is to raise awareness and help the Wiyot people in the preservation of their heritage. The Wiyot and other tribes of the Lost Coast, were the last people to have been disturbed by western civilization's push to the coast. With one of the worst massacres in north american history, in the short period of less than four days, the Wiyot people were nearly brought to extinction. A people that science and archaeology have proved to have had inhabited this land for thousands of years, is beginning to make their comeback. Tuluwat, the center of their universe, is on an island off the shore of Humboldt Bay CA, that the Wiyot people used for the universe rebirth ceremony, and a portion has been given back to the Tribe. Their very own "renewal" is the focus of our film. It is not only our passion, but our responsibility, to honestly tell all aspects of their history, their language, their beliefs, their way of life, where they are now and plans for the future.
"When people kill you, you just don't teach it anymore. The white people are here to stay. They are not going home. They now consider this home, and at that time [in the past, being Indian] was dangerous. You learn to fit in. This is what my grandfather would say. Though the government wanted us to assimilate, and that's what they tried to do, my grandfather said, `You have to work with all people all of the time.' Part of that [means] when you get beat up for speaking your language, you start speaking English.
Our basketweavers are gone. Our dreamers are gone. And our wisdom is gone. A lot of things have left. So culturally, we are -- sad."
-Cheryl Seidner
tribal chair of the Table Bluff Wiyot Reservation
Our basketweavers are gone. Our dreamers are gone. And our wisdom is gone. A lot of things have left. So culturally, we are -- sad."
-Cheryl Seidner
tribal chair of the Table Bluff Wiyot Reservation
